MANAMA (Dispatches) --
Bahraini protesters have staged nationwide rallies to express their vehement opposition to the visit by the Zionist foreign minister to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom to mark the official establishment of relations between Tel Aviv and Manama regimes.
On Thursday evening, demonstrators poured into the streets of the capital Manama to protest the occupying regime’s foreign minister’s visit to the country.
The protesters shouted “Down with Israel” and “Get out of Bahrain” to protest the normalization of ties with Israel, local media reported.
They carried banners in condemnation of normalization with Tel Aviv, and set Zionist flags ablaze in rejection of Yair Lapid’s trip to Manama to inaugurate the Israeli embassy.
The protesters also waved national Palestinian flags, and voiced solidarity with the Palestinian nation and their legitimate cause.
Similar rallies were held in the villages of Sadad and Sanabis, where protestors chanted slogans against Bahrain’s ruling Al Khlifah regime, raised placards in denunciation of normalization with the Zionist regime, and burnt Israeli flags.
Lapid arrived at Manama airport on Thursday to become the highest-ranking Israeli official to visit the tiny Persian Gulf country since the occupying regime and Bahrain established formal relations last year.
He met King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifah.
Lapid met later with his Bahraini counterpart Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, and the two sides signed deals on cooperation in medicine, healthcare, sports, and on water and environmental conservation. He was also due to inaugurate Israel’s embassy in Manama, according to Reuters news agency.
Former Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed agreements with Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Bahrain’s foreign minister during an official ceremony hosted by former U.S. president Donald Trump at the White House on September 15 last year.
Palestinians, who seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Al-Quds as its capital, view the deals as a betrayal of their cause.
Iran on Friday said Bahrain’s “despicable” welcoming of Lapid to Manama is at odds with the will of the Bahraini people, stressing that the visit left an “unremovable stain” on the reputation of the tiny Persian Gulf country’s rulers.
In a statement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh denounced the move, saying any scheme to bolster the Zionist regime’s “destructive presence” in the region will escalate regional tensions and instability.
The top Zionist diplomat has already opened the occupying regime’s embassy in Abu Dhabi and promised to establish the regime’s embassy in Rabat soon. However, Sudan’s foreign minister said over the weekend that her country has no plans to open an Israeli embassy in Khartoum.
Khatibzadeh lamented Bahrain’s ignoring of the Zionist regime’s daily atrocities against the oppressed yet resistant people of Palestine.
“Such actions will not give a boost to the legitimacy of the Zionist regime and will not affect the ideal of liberating Al-Quds al-Sharif as the first qibla of the world’s Muslims,” he said.
The spokesman also emphasized that Bahraini rulers will not be able to remove the mark of disgrace.
“The people of the region will continue to oppose the process of normalization of relations with the Zionist regime,” he added.
Palestinians have denounced the so-called Abraham Accords, calling them a “backstab” and a betrayal of their cause.
Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior leader of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, said Lapid’s visit can be “summed up in one word, which is treason.”
In an interview with Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen, al-Zahar censured the visit as a betrayal “first and foremost to God” and secondly to the people of the Persian Gulf.
“Before you normalize ties with Israel, ask the people whether they agree with what their leaders are doing or not,” he said.
He added the leaders of the Arab countries that signed normalization accords with Israel are pinning their hopes on the U.S. and want to please Washington.